Learning the Commodity Side of Coffee - (former) MTC GROUP (currently Sucafina)

The Business

Sucafina (formerly known as MTC Group in Australia) is a global green coffee trader, one of the major international houses supplying raw coffee to roasters and manufacturers. The Australian office handled green bean import, quality control, and distribution to roasters across the country. It was a business defined by volume, consistency, and margin rather than brand or retail.

Role & Fit

I joined as a green-bean Quality Assurance specialist and casual marketing support shortly after moving to Australia. The role sat at the intersection of the technical and commercial sides of coffee — cupping and grading beans, managing customer relationships, handling local advertising for the attached espresso bar, and running CRM newsletters.

Context

This was my entry into the Australian coffee industry. For someone trained in marketing, starting at the green bean trading level was a deliberate choice. Understanding coffee at the raw material stage — how green coffee is graded, how it moves through trade, how price and quality negotiate — changes how you think about every downstream decision.

Challenges

Two parallel challenges. On the technical side, building credibility as a QA specialist in a market where Asian professionals were still uncommon at the wholesale trading level. On the commercial side, running marketing activity for the espresso bar and the customer newsletter, while the primary business was B2B green coffee.

Approach & Execution

On QA, I focused on consistent cupping protocol and clear grading communication with customer roasters. On marketing, I kept the outputs small and precise — a functional CRM newsletter, locally targeted advertising for the espresso bar, and active social media rather than broadcast-style content. The scope was narrow by design; the priority was building understanding of the industry and relationships.

Outcomes

By the end of the year, I had a working knowledge of the green coffee trade, a network within the Australian industry, and hands-on QA experience that would become foundational to everything that followed. This was also the groundwork for the roasting and brand-side roles that followed.